AI and Digital Ethics

Data is increasingly fueling the economy, politics, and everyday life. Our financial transactions, movements, communications, relationships, and interactions with governments and businesses all generate data that is being collected, stored, sold, bought, and acquired through other means by data brokers, governments, and corporations interested in profiling individuals. As data sets grow to become Big Data, and as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated in collecting and analysing data, the opportunities ahead seem infinite. From climate science to healthcare and policing, AI could significantly enhance our problem-solving capacities. The risks, however, are also great, as the information being handled about individuals is sometimes extremely sensitive. Governments and companies need to address a number of ethical questions and find methods to capitalise on information while designing best practices in order to respect people's privacy and maintain their trust.

Dr Hannah Maslen and Dr Carissa Véliz are currently working on ethical issues revolving around the development of AI, and the collection and management of data.

Carissa Véliz, 29 January 2018, Al Jazeera Media View, Interviewed in connection with privacy issues relating to Strava (fitness tracking app) after discovery of a major flaw in its global heatmap. Highly sensitive data, location etc, collected on military personnel was found to be very easy to de-anonymize​

The Practical Ethics Video Series makes the most important and complex debates in practical ethics accessible to a wide audience through brief interviews with high profile philosophers in Oxford. Video interviews on this and other topics can be found on our YouTube channel.